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History and Plans
Updated 27 Nov 2001
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 5. History and Plans

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Features added to this and previous versions of QuArK, and proposed for the future.


 Index


 QuArK 6.2 (current)

tiglari - 22 Apr 2001   [ Top ] 

Stuff actually implemented in QuArK 6.2. Perhaps somebody could produce accurate lists for 6.0 and 6.1?

  • Q3(T)A Model display: (Andy/Maleficus)
    Complex models now showing

  • OsFolders: (tiglari)
    Load up resources from disk by specified paths etc. Editing of folder properties not implemented.

  • Bezier Page: (tiglari)
    No 'cp picking' or linear mapping handles.

  • Bezier CP Picking: (tiglari)
    Select certain cp's & operate on them only. (in map views, not bezier page)

  • Read/Write Brush Primitives: (tiglari)
    There's a potential for imprecisions to accumulate if stuff is imported & exported multiple times/

  • Read/Write Worlcraft 3.3 Map format: (tiglari)
    So Quark is now among other things a WC3.3<->standard format map converter.

  • DefaultTextureScale: (tiglari)
    Only for the buttons, don't yet understand how to do it for direct insert from toolbox menu.

  • Path duplicator: (Decker, tiglari)
    With tiling substructures, 'elbow spaces', point position/creation dialogs, `roll control'.

  • Patch-based shape builders: (tiglari)
    New orientations.

  • Brush-based shape builders: (tiglari)
    thick & grid specifics added, plus same new orientations as patch-based ones.

  • Stairway duplicator: (Decker)
    Stairs in a box

  • Microbrush H/K: (tiglari)
    Find and destroy.

  • New Games/Addons Supported:
    STVEF (Alex, Jeff[EFR]Scorpion, Mark Matthieson, tiglari)
    Q3TA (Maleficus, Andy)
    Crystal Space (Desmond Fletcher, et. al.) This one probably needs more work from somebody knowledgeable about CS.

  • Drag & Drop imprecision bug: (tiglari)
    squashed.

  • Model editor: (Andy)
    pre-alpha Q1/2

  • 'texture pinning': (tiglari)
    Position a texture by giving its coords at three points

  • sprites etc. display: (Andy).
    Display assorted minor resources. Full Adquedit not yet there.

  • Look At on face menu: (tiglari)
    moves & points the camera in an open 3d view to look head on at the face (ctrl to view from backside)

  • `radial' duplicator: (tiglari)
    Makes copies of things radially around a tiltable axis, with 'spiral' attributes.

  • fgd converter: (Andy, Decker)

  • tag side plugin: (tiglari)
    Wrap texture across tagged might be less fussy

  • Navigate Tree: (tiglari)
    Zoom now causes 3d view camera to swivel to object

  • Addon organization: (Decker)
    Addons now can go in a different folder for each game.

  • Circlestrafe Selection Mouse-key combo: (tiglari)
    Shift+RMB during drag to swivel around selected object.

  • MipTex Extraction: (Andy)
    extract textures from Q1, Hx1 .bsp's

  • Vertex Movement: (tiglari)
    less drifting of non-drug vertexes when a vertex is dragged.

  • Form-editing: (Andy)
    status: editing only - no create

  • Rectangle selection of everything: (tiglari)
    selects groups and brush entities if all of their sub-objects are also selected.


 QuArK 6.3

tiglari, etc. - 15 Aug 2001   [ Top ] 

This is stuff that tiglari and anyone else who updates this file currently envisions for the next release of QuArK. Considerable material has just been put off from 6.3 to 6.4

  • 6DX Engine Support: (decker, Jacob Marner)
    status: done.

  • Crystal Space Support: (tiglari, funkiedamouse)
    status: a cleanup done.

  • Linear Matrix editor: (tiglari, lots of design from Rolf Hulsbergen)
    crank out matrices for rotation, scaling etc. from intelligible parameters (from pushbutton in duplicator forms).
    status: re-done.

  • Extruder: (tiglari)
    generate brushes etc. from 2d outlines.
    status: done (integrates with path duplicator); some extensions currently being added.

  • 'New Copy One' duplicator: (tiglari)
    put copies of a structure where you want it. Inspired by a suggestion by Meatball402 on Quake3World editing forum.
    status: done, replaces previous 'instance duplicator' idea.

  • User-configurable hot keys: (tiglari)
    status: current ones all done.
    What additional ones should be added?

  • User-specifible rotation/linear mapping origin: (tiglari)
    Do they really need to be persistent properties of groups? (as opposed say to a tagged point)
    what about axis? No, wouldn't integrate with the buttons.
    status: redone as handle (old origin duplicator removed from interface). Works as fixpoint for scale/rotate linear specifics in some duplicators.

  • Merge Polys: (tiglari)
    bugs fixed, merge all mergeable polys in group
    status: done

  • Form-editing: (Andy)
    status: create capacity done.

  • Entity Extractor: (Andy)
    Entities extracted from .bsp's in many formats (including Q3(T)A).
    Status: done, runs out of memory on some maps in some .pk3's. This can be worked around by extracting the .bsps to individual files.

  • Face-selection modes: (tiglari)
    status: done, as 'F' during RMB click, to select face rather than poly.

  • L-square enhancements: (tiglari, ax2grind)
    status: started, align & glue to tagged done. I intend to leave further enhancements as an exercise for someone who wants to learn more about QuArK-Python programming.

  • Tree navigation: (tiglari, design from Decker, realdespair)
    home, pg up, pg down for parent, next prev in group, cycling. Plus some kind of option for getting next-of-same-type in group.
    status: basic stuff done. Perhaps add more refined same-type option (=classname for point entities, brush entities, =macro for duplicators)

  • Entity Lump Extractor: (tiglari)
    extracts entity lumps from .bsp's in a .pak to independent files.
    status: done but seems to fail with STVEF .bsp's whose names begin with underscore. More thought about easy preparation of entity addons is needed.

  • 3point cutting plane: (tiglari)
    status: done

  • Pythonify entity def converters: (Andy)
    status: done

  • texture search facility: (Andy, suggestions from quantum_red)
    status: done

  • storable camera positions: (tiglari, design from quantum_red)
    status: done

  • group selection movement commands: (tiglari, design from Alan Donald and quantum_red)
    exchange position & align (WC-style)
    status:done

  • incrementable specifics in duplicators: (subnoodle, tiglari)
    status: done except for radial duplicator.

  • texture-replacement specifics for duplicators: (tiglari)
    status: done except for radial.

  • promotion/demotion of submenus: (tiglari)
    status: done for texture & tagging (not intended for all submenus, just some of the more useful ones)

  • Code specifics for toolbar buttons: (Andy)
    status: done

  • Support for Gunman, Blue Shift & other HL derivatives: (Decker)
    status: done.

  • Arg Replacer: (decker)
    status: done & documented

  • Show/edit entities for supported games bsp's: (tiglari)
    status: done except for Sin (a fourth bsp structure probably over-strains the present code structure).

  • Inspect nodes & planes in bsps: (tiglari)
    status: done

  • Object snapper: (tiglari, idea from quantum red)
    align/move object w.r.t. face so that face and a face of the object are paralell.
    status: done

  • Object slider enhancement: (tiglari)
    Now moves object over plane and along normal.
    status: done.

  • Map reconstructor for Q3: (tiglari)
    This might be easier to do well for Q3 engine games because the model structure seems to include brush info as well as face info.
    status: envisioned, maybe do, maybe defer.

  • Tag side plugin: (tiglari)
    More flexibility for wrap across tagged.
    status: envisioned, maybe defer to 6.4


 QuArK 6.4

tiglari, etc. - 13 Aug 2001   [ Top ] 

Current plans for 6.4. Some of the python-based facilities might become available as experimental addons to 6.3

  • L-square menu enhancements: (tiglari, ax2grind)
    status: started, align & glue to tagged done. I intend to leave further enhancements as an exercise for someone who wants to learn more about QuArK-Python programming. Suggested additions are:
    • checkbox for relative to tagged/join of L (better to just tag the join, I think now)
    • move to fraction of distance to tagged (arm only)
    • end position
    • arm length
    • arm angle
    What about L-join options?

  • Radiant-style Regioning: (?)
    Hide and don't save everything not in the rectangle.

  • Don't draw restricted out stuff: (tiglari)
    Should key with grey/hide out of view

  • Edit textures in .bsp files: (Andy, tiglari, Decker, ?)
    an as-yet-unimplemented 4.7 feature.

  • FAKK2 support: (?)
    And what about Daikatana?

  • OsFolders: (tiglari)
    edit the properties of pre-existing OsFolders

  • Brush-based shape-builders: (tiglari, Decker)
    'inner boxes' (two independently manipulable boxes, one inside the other, giving more control over arch shapes).
    redo prism-builder as shape-builder.
    more fancy options for stair-builder

  • Patch-based shape-builders: (tiglari)
    sphere, 'inner boxes', 'square cylinders' (s/b easy, but no requests for it

  • Patch bend mode: (tiglari)
    Or something like it.

  • full equivalence to GtkR patch texturing: (tiglari)

  • Expand/Contract faces: (tiglari)
    As enhancement to experimental mapmovevertex plugin
    Plus extension of vertex locks to ordinary vertex dragging.

  • CTF duplicator: (tiglari)
    status: started, nothing committed.

  • Model Editor: (Andy)
    more progress

  • Ripoff of WC `arch maker': (tiglari)
    would be called something like`arc builder', probably basically a duplicator, emulating the wc thing's functionality.

  • Incorporate 'entity info files' into toolboxes: (tiglari)
    tiglari has PERL scripts that generate various kinds of info (hints, bounding bpxes etc) from Radiant .def files and other sources, the idea being to let these be automatically integrated into the toolboxes generated by Andy's addon-builder.


 Suggestions

tiglari, etc. - 05 May 2001   [ Top ] 

Suggestions for implementation (proposer parenthesized).

  • Preserve selected status for face & brush on vertex move (rd)

  • Path info for file links, so that the files can be anywhere (Seth)

  • Rescale textures on vertex drag (rd, currently in exp. plugin).

  • Selected groups colored rather than dotted outline (option perhaps?). (rd)

  • Patch-based terrain builder: (tiglari)

  • Adquedit-equivalent resource display: (Seth)

  • new projection option, 'project from nearest plane', emulating classic qe texture alignment: the projection of the texture scale on the closest axis plane to the tagged face normal is found, then that is projected onto the tagged face. (tiglari)

  • Optional plugins:
    Some plugins wouldn't load unless they were 'registered' like addons; this would make it easier to try things out
    Alternative: plugins with 'expmap', etc. prefixes which would only load when a 'load experimental plugins' option was checked.

  • Red-hot keys:
    'T', 'W' etc in 3d view would select & tag/wrap etc the visible face they were over. (tiglari, quantum red)

  • Intersection finder:
    A ripoff of the one in bobtoolz

  • Autocaulker:
    Ditto


 Big Ideas

tiglari, etc. - 22 Apr 2001   [ Top ] 

Ambitious, not necessarily realistic proposals, Ranging from the relatively straightforward to crazed dreams.

  • Model editor: (Andy, tiglari)
    export closed mesh to brushset

  • NetQuark: (???) Multi-user editing over the net. Would need somebody who really knows what they're doing. Probably not a realistic target, Support for collaboration via CVS might be more plausible.

  • persistent edits: (?)
    undo/redo info written to files/saved with maps, supporting playable entity demos (Ax2grind idea), and 'orthogonal persistence' (http://www.tunes.org) of editing sessions

  • XML support: (?)
    Maximum possible compatibility with GtkRadiant

  • Qrk editor: (?)
    Edit .qrk's in the style of a decent XML editor
    Andy's form-editing extension to the explorer are basically implementing this.

  • Big XY view: (?)
    whole-screen XY view, with other stuff on RMB's

  • Integrated Dynamic bsp builder: (?)
    bsp building & optimization while u're scratching ur head...

  • Surf Inspectors: (?)
    Laid out more like in Radiant, which I like better than Quark's long list.

  • More Game Formats: (?)
    Unreal engine, Serious Sam, Heroes of Might and Magic (Quark was used some internally for either the one coming out now or the one before it, so maybe this one has a chance).


 Tags & Branches

tiglari, etc. - 27 Nov 2001   [ Top ] 

The idea here is to record tags and branches entered into the repository, with comments on their purpose and status. I've only done a few recent ones, mostly that I've been responsible for.

  • REL_61: the branch for the Quark 6.1 release
  • rel-63: a short-lived branch for putting new stuff that wasn't supposed to go into 62. relevant contents merged into the main branch
  • rel-63-exp: ditto
  • REL_62: branch for the 6.2 release. Hopefully closed off now!
  • NuTex: an experimental branch for testing schemes for dissociating texture positioning from face-positioning.
    obsolete
  • NuTex2: an newer experimental branch for testing schemes for dissociating texture positioning from face-positioning.
    only applies to QkMapPoly.pas
  • Q3ABSPM only for QkBsp.pas, QkBspHull.pas: Q3A Bsp reading. Now s/b closed, it's stuff is on the main branch.
  • Leakhunt 1, 2 for runtime: useless bungling
  • Leakhunt 3 for runtime: leak hunting modifications
  • Leakhunt 3 for source: more bungling, needed stuff in main branch



GNU General Public License by The QuArK (Quake Army Knife) Community - http://www.planetquake.com/quark

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